A five-wicket haul for medium pacer Holly Huddleston and a Suzie Bates century has secured the White Ferns a nine-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their opening match at the women's Cricket World Cup in England.

Sri Lanka constructed a solid start after White Ferns skipper Bates won the toss and elected to bowl, building nicely to be 141-1 halfway through the 36th over.

But they lost five wickets in the next 38 balls for 15 runs, with Huddlestone the chief destroyer.

The medium pacer went on to collect 5-35 off her 10 overs, including the key wicket of opener Chamari Polgampola for 49.

Lea Tahuhu, Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr also picked up a wicket apiece as Sri Lanka stumbled to 188-9 off their 50 overs.

Although the New Zealanders lost opener Rachel Priest in the sixth over, Bates and Amy Satterthwaite combined in an unbeaten 170-run partnership to wrap up the win with 12.2 overs to spare.

Bates's 106 was her eighth ODI century, coming in 109 balls and including 11 fours and a six.

Satterthwaite kept the run rate ticking over in accumulating 78 off 103 balls.

Bates said it had been pleasing to finally find some form

"In the lead up to this, I hadn't felt that great out in the middle and I just wanted to be patient and wait for the ball," she said.

"There's a lot we can improve on; I thought Sri Lanka batted really well early on and whenever we gave them any width they put it away.

"But the way we came back with the ball was really pleasing to keep them below 200, then to get the target with just one wicket down will give us some momentum."

New Zealand's second game is against South Africa in Derby on Wednesday.